Hi from South Africa

[Tania Hattingh]

I'm a mother wanting to cope better with a 14 year old daughter that has two types of seizures due to two brain disfunctions, only diagnosed last year. She is on two types of medication, and one of the medication is being increased every week for the next three weeks, due to her seizures increasing up to 3 a week, reason being, she reached child bearing age and outgrown her dosage. I'm new at this so any guidance, information etc. will help me immencely, so that i can guide and educate her on it as well, seeing that this is going to be a lifestyle that we will have to adopt to.

Greetings from Sunny South Africa

Tania Hatting

[Nakamova]

Hi Tania, welcome to CWE!

It's sunny (and very hot and humid) here in Massachusetts too!
Sorry to hear about your daughter and her seizures, I hope the medication increase will help. With the teenage metabolism and hormones it can take a bit of time to get the right medication(s) and dosage. What are the medications she is on?

Best,
Nakamova

[Tania Hattingh]

It is our Winter time now, last week we had very cold days, but this week it is actually nice weather for a change. She is currently on Epilim & Lamecton, it is the Lamecton dosage that is being increased. (Please mind the spelling, i'm not sure of it being spelled right)

Greetings Tania

[Nakamova]

Epilim is also called sodium valproate or valproic acid, and Lamecton is also called Lamictal and Lamotrigine so if you want to search for info in the CWE archives try using those names as well. (You can search using the "Search" tab in the bar at the top.)

You probably know this already, but the risk of getting a rash is higher if taking Lamecton and while taking Epilim at the same time, so the increase in Lamecton dosage needs to go very slowly, in small increments. Epilim can increase the amount of Lamecton that stays on the blood, so you need to watch out for signs that your daughter is overmedicated (coordination problems, involuntary eye movements).

Is she having any side effects from the meds so far? What kinds of seizures does she have?

[Tania Hattingh]

The Neorologist did tell us to look out for any kind of rash, and to let him know immediately. But i did not know of the other symptoms, thanx for that. I did not pick up any side effects so far, which i'm thankful for.
She gets an "absence" attack with the jerks, saliva etc during the day, but i'm not sure what type she gets during the evening when she sleeps. I did some enquiries about a seisure monitoring unit, which i want to implement in the evenings when she sleeps, but i did not realise it is so damn expensive....

[Nakamova]

I'm glad there are no problems with side effects. If there start to be problems with side effects or seizure control, You might want to look into using the MAD (Modified Atkins Diet) as a treatment. It has shown a lot of success against absence seizures.

There's more info here:
http://www.atkinsforseizures.com/story.html

[Endless]

Hi, Tania,

Welcome!

[Terri]

Hi Tania
I also have a 13 year old daughter who just started having fits in Sept last year, we are in Jhb, Fourways.
We still playing around with meds, but hell are they expensive!!
Let's stay in touch.
We see Dr Tizania Aduc at Suninghill

[Tania Hattingh]

It is good to meet you, we are with Dr. David Anderson in Parktown. The Meds are very expensive, but luckily for me her dad handles that, seeing as he is responsible for the kids health, after our divorce.

What type of fits does she get, and how is she doing in school? My girl had a thriller of a term behind her, she dropped from a 79 average to a 49 average for the first time in her academic years... she had an increase of fits, so her meds had to be increased, now the fits have minimized. But we have some hard work to get her average back to where it was...

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Greetings

Tania

[Terri]

Hi Tania
Great to hear from you. Luckily Tegan's dad also pays for all the meds, although we are applying for Chronic at Discovery health.
We seem to be in the same boat...are you also divorced/single mother?
Tegan had her first fit in Sept last year while she was doing a hip hop dance class.
She was admitted to hospital and spent 4 days there having all the tests, EEG, ECG, MRI, diabetes...and everything else under the sun!
Anyway we then put her on Lamictin and were seeing a GP who was consulting with a neurologist. After 3 months, her EEG showed no improvement so we added Keppra.
She had another fit in Nov while studying at her desk at home. Thank goodness she did not hit her head on anything!
Then we were referred to Dr Tizania Aduc at Suninghill Hosp.
We weaned her off the Keppra and started her on Zarontin - still with the Lamictin.
She still gets petit mal seizures and it does affect her concentration . but Tegan has never really been a great academic achiever, so we dont see any change there.
Got our next app with Dr Aduc on 30 Aug - and let's see what happens.
Take care
Terri

[Tania Hattingh]

Got married in December 2009 to an old school friend of mine, we met after 20 years again. My ex-husband and I have joint custody, so it is basically a joint venture with Megan. It is funny because she was also dancing when her dance instructor informed us that she thinks she has Petit Mal seizures. She also spent a week in a Epilepsy ward to be monitored, and that is when they picked up that she has two brain disfunctions, and two different seizures. Currently she is on high dosages of Epilem and Lamictin.

Good Luck and chat to you soon.

Greetings

Tania